PUT AMERICA TO WORK AND STOP SUPPORTING THE MYTH OF "FREE TRADE"
"TRICKLE DOWN" ECONOMICS BORROWS AMERICAN MONEY AND SHIPS JOBS OVERSEAS
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
Millions of Americans have been propagandized to the point where buying foreign goods, seeing factories close and jobs move overseas while a very few grow fat, seems "normal" and acceptable. That "few" is now mostly foreign "investors" growing rich while we bleed. Anyone who complains is "unpatriotic" or accused of not "supporting the troops."
When Americans are asked to buy American goods, something now almost impossible, or to support decent wages and health benefits for their own families, they face accusation of being socialists or terrorists.
Veterans returning from war face 20% unemployment, 30% underemployment (near minimum wage jobs) and many disappear from the grid entirely, becoming homeless. Medical care for many is denied as some VA regions are underfunded and overburdened. Still others have their records and applications destroyed by the thousands while nothing is done.
80 years ago, Henry Ford began paying $5 a day to his workers. They bought homes and cars. Ford made millions in profits and America learned that workers in the middle class were the key to economic growth. Why have we forgotten Ford’s lesson?
In 1969, we fought a war, rebuilt our cities and sent a man to the moon, all with very little national debt. Now we hear of that time as "the welfare state." We haven’t been back to the moon since, unemployment is far higher, our cities in collapse, wages dropping every day and our debt is a hundred times higher than then.
This is the work of the brilliant "trickle down" economists who deregulated the thieves and outlawed labor unions. Thanks guys, good thinking!
Walmart has announced that returning vets can work for them. This is good for Walmart as they get highly trained and motivated people who have 5 years of government health care available thru the VA at no cost. Normally Walmart workers get their healthcare thru Medicaid at government expense. Why shouldn’t we subside Chinese factories with our tax money?
For most of this century, unions fought for decent working conditions, good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air and pure food. Industrial groups hired police, the National Guard and Army Reserve and mercenary groups with the KKK (the Black Legion) and American Legion to fight against American freedoms for all. This is our history, not the one in all the books, but our history all the same.
One of our few "growth industries" is the lie machine twisting our history to where only the hated "elite" know the truth and we are warned to ignore everything they say. Anyone telling the truth in America today, the college professors and the historians, are the same enemies as those who complain about fixed prices and Washington corruption. The foreign "money machine" that controls American "opinion" crushes anyone who gets in the way. Their tools, not newspapers and radio anymore, now police, courts and prisons. They control all of it.
Unions won the war and America entered a time of prosperity where we defeated Nazi Germany and the threat of Communism while building the worlds highest standard of living and strongest economy.
Well paid and skilled workers sent kids to college who started businesses, joined professions, built new communities and jobs. They paid taxes, bought homes, cars and made us strong.
All of this got turned around. Sending jobs overseas and buying foreign products while paying Americans minimum wage in our new "service economy" was the answer. It was going to "build capital" and bring on a new period of prosperity.
Instead, our factories closed, our standard of living plunged, healthcare collapsed and we became the biggest debtor nation in the history of the world.
Our banking system and stock markets collapsed, our military became unsustainable and nations we used to laugh at now threaten us.
The next time you hear someone saying American workers are overpaid, go to your local BP station. Look up at the sign. Oil is at $54 a barrel but gas is at $2 bucks. It took months to get that low, even after oil prices collapsed. Most us remember that gas prices run thru the roof in minutes on a rumor but lower like molasses in January. We call this the "free market" but know when we are getting screwed. If you feel this way every time you buy anything you have a good understanding how the "free" in free market is an outright lie.
Ask the clerk how much they make per hour. You can guess how close to minimum wage it is. Look at the profits of BP (a foreign company) or Shell (a foreign company) or the others.
Crude oil costs go up and oil companies make more money, this makes no sense. Crude oil prices go down, in fact collapse, and gas prices stay the same, lowering eventually and oil companies make even more money. Get the picture?
That money is going to Switzerland, Dubai or Saudi Arabia, not the US. All we get here is the minimum wage and TRILLIONS in debt to pay for the massive outflow of money to finance oil price fixing.
Pay workers a decent wage and they will buy homes and cars. Build things in America and people will buy them. End our subsides of slave labor camps in Vietnam making goods for Target, Meijer, Walmart and others.
Anyone who thinks we have ‘free trade’ is deluded. We have a rigged economy where every nation on earth bleeds America to death while making our kids fight to keep them safe. They dump their junk into our stores and now ship us their poisoned food.
Close the borders, end the illegal immigration manufacturers and agriculture giants have supported for years and establish a living minimum wage that will make Americans self supporting again. It’s time we put America first.
For 20 years we have been hoodwinked into throwing away our way of life, our freedoms, our jobs and our national pride to put a few extra bucks into the hands of the few and their foreign buddies. It has been sold as "family values" or "Reaganomics" but has been the worst single disaster in our history.
Our government and military leaders serve only the corporate and banking masters, few of which are American, many of whom wish only to see America destroyed. This is the truth of it. If you were to see the secret clients of the public relations agencies responsible for managing this last election you would find many names on the "no fly list" among them. Terrorist nations are surprisingly well represented by famous Washington insiders, the same people who represent oil companies, banks and defense contractors. Look into it.
Support America. Buy American. If they don’t make it here, don’t buy it. We are going to bring our troops home. Maybe we could bring some of our jobs home too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gordon Duff is a Senior Staff Writer for VeteransToday.com. He is a U.S. Marine Vietnam Veteran and regular contributor. He is a specialist in banking and economics and holds a United Nations diplomatic post.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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